Not Your Elevator Music

Most people think of jazz as background music for wine bars. That sells it short. At its best, jazz is one of the most intellectually demanding and emotionally intense art forms ever created. A musician improvising at full capacity is doing something closer to competitive chess at high speed than to ambient relaxation.

John Coltrane once played a single solo on "Giant Steps" that cycled through three key centers every two bars at breakneck speed, using a harmonic pattern so challenging that it became a rite of passage for jazz musicians. He recorded it in 1959.